Five Minute Friday: "See"

Thanks to Lisa-Jo Baker at Five Minute Friday for the prompts.

 

 

GO!

 

I spy with my little eye something that is...FLAWED!  Every time I look in the mirror, I look at all that is wrong with me.  My vision is that of an inspector looking for any "spot or wrinkle" to pounce on.  My inner dialogue...well, and my outer monologue... is that of a brutal taskmaster who says, "Look at you!  What a waste!  What's wrong with you!  Fix this! Fix that!  Get yourself together!  Time is short!  Hurry, hurry, hurry!"  The pressure is overwhelming.

 

My own warped vision has put me in a very dangerous depressive place mentally.  It gotten me to see only the bad, the flawed, the not good enough.  I think my own warped seeing has been what's caused me to sabotage my own healthy efforts.  No, I don't think it is; I KNOW it is.  "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."  (Proverbs 23:7). 

 

It's going to take some doing.to change my mind.  It's going to take momentous mental energy to on purpose see the good, the little areas of progress, to actually enjoy the journey instead of  constantly saying "I'll be happy when..."

 

TIME'S UP!

 

 

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: The 12th and Final Week

I'm using the following post with permission from Rodney Holmstron, National Encourager Coach for Celebrate Recovery.  Thanks, Rodney.

  

How do you like your eggs?

I can remember as a young boy going to the grocery store to buy eggs for my mom. In her instructions she was very clear when it came to buying eggs. "make sure you open the carton and check for cracked eggs". If I opened the carton and one is cracked or broken, I was instructed to just "put it back on the shelf" and keep looking for one that has a full un-cracked dozen.

As I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but relate it back to my life. For so long in my life, I viewed God as the one opening the carton and looking down on me amongst other people on this earth. I knew I was the cracked and broken egg and surrounded with people that had it all together. Some thoughts would run thru my head like, "Why was I so messed up and everyone else had such a perfect life? Why am I the only cracked egg around here? I know God can't use me and will just stick me back on the shelf to be disposed of later."

Fortunately, looking back I realized that my thinking was distorted. God is not examining each egg, searching for cracks so that He can throw them back. He isn't looking for un-cracked eggs that have it all together. In fact, this is why He sent His Son to die for us. He knows we are all cracked eggs.

I now realize that there is no such thing as a perfect person. We are all broken and He loves us anyway. I have learned now more than ever thru CR that some people can look beautiful and happy on the outside only to have misery and pain on the inside. Just cause there are no visible cracks doesn't always mean the egg is not beginning to spoil on the inside.

If your egg is rotting on the inside or if you have cracks in your shell, don't keep hiding them from the Father, He already knows about them. He has the power to restore, redeem and renew us into a healthy and vibrant being. But until we surrender & acknowledge those to Him, He cannot begin the restoration process.

"Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time." - Viktor E. Frankl

The Father gives us a second chance at living life. Today, I take all my brokenness and cracks to the cross. I can't wait to see how he will take a cracked egg like myself and make delicious scrambled eggs out of my mess. :)
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Side 1 of Card/Paper: 

 

Isaiah 61:3 - To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

 

Side 2:  God sees me as beautiful!

 

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments.  I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me.

 

 

 

　



Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 11

Side 1 of card/paper:

Psalm 68:6 - God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains...

Side 2:

God did not create me to be isolated and lonely.

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments. 

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 10

Side 1 of card/paper:

Deuternonmy 6:23 - And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.

Side 2:

God has brought me out of a life of sin and death by the blood of Christ to bring me into His abundant life.

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments. 

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 9

Side 1 of card/paper: 

Psalm 103:12 - As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Side 2:

I AM FORGIVEN!


Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments. 

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 8

Side 1 of card/paper:

I Corinthians 7:23 - You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; (Amplified Version)

Side 2 of card/paper

I am worth it.

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments. 

Here is a video for inspiration:

Stinkin' Thinkin' Chalenge: Week 7

Side 1 of card/paper:

James 2:8 - If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. (NIV)

Side 2:  I love the Lord, I love others, and I love myself.

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 6

Side one of card/paper:

Revelation 4:11 (King James Version)- Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Side two of card/paper:

I was created for God's loving pleasure.

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenege Week 5

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge:  Week 5

Side one of paper/card:  I Corinthians 6:17 - But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.  (NIV)

Side two: I am one with the Lord!

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge Week 4

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge, Week 4

Side one of card/paper:  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 

Side two:  I belong to God becasue I was bought at a price!!

What did you learn from last week's challenge?

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge: Week 3

Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge, Week 3

Side one of card/paper:  Romans 5:1 - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"

 Side two: I have been justified!

What did you learn from last week's challenge?

Tuesday Inspirations and the Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge, Week 02

A little mojo for the day:
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Rohn

"There's no such thing as luck.  Luck is preparation that meets up with opportunity."  - Rush Limbaugh

"If anybody tells you that a workout should be easy, you should walk over to them and slap them in the face." - Billy Blanks

Take back your life so your life isn't taken from you.  --Biggest Loser Season 12, episode 4.

Better to have a big goal and reach half of it than to have no goal and reach all of it. -- Joyce Meyer

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What I learned from last week's Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge:

I struggle with the question of "earning the right" to be loved and cared for.  After all, I've not done anything spectacular or heroic to garner that type of care and concern.  However, as I read John 1:12 (NIV), I caught the phrase "... he gave the right to become children of God."  Did you catch that?  He, Jesus, gave us the RIGHT to become children of God. His love, his care is a free gift, ready for us to open and enjoy.  In other words, I don't have to earn the right to love and care; Christ GAVE me that right.

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Now, the Stinkin' Thinkin' challenge for the week:

Write on Side one of your card/paper:

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." - John 15:15

Side two of card/paper:

 I am Christ's  friend!

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart. Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments.  

(Listen and receive)

The Little Voice in Your Head: The Stinkin' Thinkin' Challenge, Week 1

Before I dive into this subject, I thought I'd share a funny clip with you.  Pay special attention from 3:20 to 3:35.  Enjoy.

Funny huh? My personal favorite was the Weed, California joke.  But anyway, time to get serious.

Let's talk about the "little voices in your head" and what they mean to us.

I was watching a documentary on youtube about a young girl in a group treatment facility for anorexia.  I was fascinated by a statement one of the girls made: 

There’s someone who lives in your head, but she’s moved the real you out of your brain and just sort of left a tiny bit of it and she controls your brain and everything you do.

First, this quote answers your question:  Why is she watching videos about anorexia?  She's fat.  I watched them because  1) I envy these girls for their appearance of discipline to simply not eat and/or to exercise excessively (I said I envy the discipline, not the disorder) and 2) because I wanted to understand the mentality of someone who was dangerously thin, yet still thought they were fat.

I have found that in my case, the mentality of the obese and the anorexic is shockingly similar.  I have often felt that I was under the control of an "alternate" me.  No, not disassociation or demon possession, but a fracture between the outside me and the inside me.

The outside me is the one people see; the people pleaser, the chameleon fueled by the fleeting strength of the false bravado of someone without a care or need.  The real me, the inside me, is the me I one I want to see when I look in the mirror and I'm shocked when I don't. She is strong and healthy, has friends and is free to express needs

Then there's "HER": the mediator between the inside me and the outside me.  "HER" is the taskmaster who yells in my head:

"unworthy of love" 
"fat, ugly, lazy, disgusting slob!"
"Only a two pound weight loss, that's not good enough!  YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"
"FAILURE!"
"Who do you think you are?!"
"You might as well give up and eat. EAT! EAT! EAT!"

"HER" propels me toward junk food like a junkie toward crack, all the while soothing me with the lie of, "It will get better.  This is the last time you'll have to do this."

In all this, the real me gets lost; locked deeper and deeper into a prison cell--a limited space with no prospect of escape (much less thriving).

So, how can we heal?  First, it cannot be done alone (I don't care what the self-help books say).  There are steps we can take, but we must have help, support, and accountability.  We need help to completely change our minds.

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]."  (Amplified Version)

III John 1:2 says - Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers. (Amplified Version)

Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions.  Our spirit and soul must be well and balanced in order for our bodies to be well and balanced.  Only when we use God's Word to begin to think of ourselves the way He thinks of us, can we really be free from the taskmaster that destroys our mind, crushes our will, and mangles our emotions.  This changes aren't instant.  They happen one day at a time, one thought at a time.

Rodney Holmstrom, the National Encourager Coach for Celebrate Recovery set up a "Stinkin' Thinkin'" challenge earlier this year.  I would like us all to participate in it.  All you need is index cards or pieces of paper and a pen.

Write on Side 1 of your card/paper:   "Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12

Write on Side 2: I am a child of God!!!

Read over this several times a day for the next week, and let God speak to your heart.  Please feel free to share any insights, questions, or prayer requests you may have in the comments.  Let's do this!

(Good body image begins with a good state of mind.  Warped thinking produces a warped body image.)